Nvidia kicks its automotive efforts into high gear

Nvidia is no newcomer to the car business. But this was the first year that the chipmaker–better known for developing GeForce GPUs for desktop gaming–chose to focus almost exclusively on automotive technology at CES. At the show, Nvidia did announce its first GPU using more advanced process technology, specifically TSMC’s 16nm FinFET+ process, but it wasn’t the high-end GeForce GPU we were expecting. Instead the company announced a new Drive PX 2 module, which CEO Jen-Hsun Huang described as the “the world’s first in-car supercomputer for artificial intelligence.” The module includes two CPUs and two 16FF+ next-generation Pascal GPUs. During Nvidia’s CES press conference, Huang also went into a lot of detail on the company’s development of a deep-learning platform for handling the complex tasks required to enable autonomous driving.…